THE KIDD’S NOT ALRIGHT: The Navy has reported a dramatic jump in the number of sailors on the USS Kidd who have tested positive for COVID-19 as the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer steams back to port, its counterdrug mission off the Pacific coast of Central America cut short.
In its latest update, the Navy reports that with almost half of the ship’s 350-member crew tested, 47 tested positive for the virus. That’s 14% of the crew — with 55% still to be tested. If the rest of the sailors test positive at the same rate, as many as 100 could be infected, an infection rate of almost 30%, which would be higher than the roughly 20% infection rate on the USS Theodore Roosevelt.
Two sailors from the Kidd required medical evacuation to the United States, and 15 others showing “persistent symptoms” were transferred to medical facilities on the flat-deck amphibious assault ship USS Makin Island, which has an intensive care unit and ventilators. The Navy says that so far, none are in the ICU or on ventilators.
THE NIMITZ DEPLOYS: With the aircraft carrier USS Roosevelt still sidelined in Guam, the Navy is deploying the USS Nimitz and its escort ships to the western Pacific after an exercise off the west coast of the U.S.
The Nimitz left Naval Base Kitsap in Bremerton, Washington, yesterday under extraordinary precautions to ensure it did not befall the fates of Roosevelt or Kidd. “From the beginning, they have done all that I and Navy leadership have asked them to do: face coverings, social distancing, continuous ship sanitization, testing and periods of quarantine — all executed with precision and professionalism,” said Capt. Max Clark, the carrier’s commanding officer.
All personnel on ships in the Nimitz carrier strike group will complete COVID-19 testing prior to getting underway or embarking, in addition to having completed a fast cruise or quarantine of at least 14 days, the Navy says.
DEMOCRATS BLAME ESPER: A group of Congressional Democrats, led by former presidential candidates Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, and Amy Klobuchar, are accusing Defense Secretary Mark Esper of “failure to adequately respond” to the coronavirus pandemic.
“Civilian leadership of the Department has failed to act sufficiently quickly, and has often prioritized readiness at the expense of the health of servicemembers and their families,” the 10 senators, all Democrats, wrote in a letter to Esper sent yesterday.
Specifically, they accuse him of “unwillingness or inability to issue clear, Department-wide guidance, which has forced the armed services and local commanders to respond to outbreaks on a case-by-case basis.”
ESPER’S DEFENSE: When questioned, Esper has vigorously pushed back against any suggestion that the Pentagon was slow to respond to the fast-developing crisis.
“We’ve taken protecting our people very seriously,” Esper told Fox New April 15. “Going back to 30 January was when I issued my first guidance to the troops with regard to how to protect themselves, to follow CDC guidance. We’ve issued numerous guidelines from there, another seven or eight.”
The following day, in an interview with NBC’s Today show, Esper argued that he can’t just shut down the military. “While most of America is rightly looking inward and taking care of one another, taking care of their families and communities, we continue to stand guard, looking outward for America’s adversaries, whether it’s China trying to jeopardize freedom of the seas, whether it’s Russian aircraft trying to enter our air space.”
“We continue to deter Iranian bad behavior, supporting our colleagues in Afghanistan, our friends in Iraq,” he said. “All these things continue to happen out there, and we want to make sure that our adversaries are not taking advantage of the situation.”
Good Tuesday morning and welcome to Jamie McIntyre’s Daily on Defense, written and compiled by Washington Examiner National Security Senior Writer Jamie McIntyre (@jamiejmcintyre) and edited by David Sivak and Tyler Van Dyke. Email here with tips, suggestions, calendar items, and anything else. Sign up or read current and back issues at DailyonDefense.com. If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email and we’ll add you to our list. And be sure to follow us on Twitter: @dailyondefense.
Subscribe today to the Washington Examiner magazine and get Washington Briefing: politics and policy stories that will keep you up to date with what’s going on in Washington. SUBSCRIBE NOW: Just $1.00 an issue!
HAPPENING TODAY: Today marks the beginning of a series of multicity flyovers over the next two weeks to show national solidarity in the fight against COVID-19. Both the Navy’s Blue Angels and the Air Force’s Thunderbirds will take part in the salute, which is intended to recognize healthcare workers, first responders, and other essential personnel.
The first flyover is scheduled for today over New York, New Jersey, and Philadelphia.
COVID COUNT: The current number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 among U.S. military members, DOD civilian employees, contractors, and their dependents is 6,568 as of Monday, an increase of 355 cases. Of those, 1,258 have recovered, and 281 required hospitalization at some point. The death toll is now 27.
With all of the crew members of the USS Roosevelt now having been tested, 955 sailors have tested positive, with 4,105 testing negative. Of the total cases, 14 sailors are listed as recovered, a drop that reflects more conservative criteria the Navy has adopted for judging a sailor “recovered.” Cases now are only counted as “recovered” after two successive negative tests.
TRUMP KNOWS SOMETHING: “On Kim Jong Un? I can’t tell you exactly. Yes, I do have a very good idea, but I can’t talk about it now.”
That was President Trump’s response yesterday when asked if he had any update on the health and welfare of the North Korean leader, who has not been seen in public since April 11 and is the subject of intense speculation that he could be gravely ill or even dead.
“I hope he’s fine. I do know how he’s doing relatively speaking,” Trump offered. “We will see. You’ll probably be hearing in the not-too-distant future.”
But when asked about the statement from Kim, quoted in North Korea’s state-controlled newspaper Rodong Sinmun, Trump didn’t seem to know anything about it.
“Nobody knows where he is, so he obviously couldn’t have said it,” Trump said, brushing off the question. “If you have a — this is breaking news that Kim Jong Un made a statement on Saturday. I don’t think so.”
North Korean state media reported that on Saturday, Kim “sent thanks to the officials and working people for having rendered sincere assistance to the Wonsan Kalma coastal tourist area under construction.”
Since then, the Pyongyang Times reported that Kim “extended warm congratulations” to the president of South Africa.
TRUMP NEEDS A PLAN: Whether or not Kim is dead or alive at the moment, Trump needs to repair Asian regional defense relationships in preparation for the day Kim’s poor diet and heavy smoking do him in, former CIA Korea deputy chief and current Heritage Foundation analyst Bruce Klingner tells my colleague Abraham Mahshie.
Kim is “one chocolate wafer away from a heart attack,” says Klingner, who added that Kim’s absence from the public view doesn’t mean he is dead or incapacitated. “If I had to put my money on it, I’d say he’s not dead yet,” he told the Washington Examiner. “Longtime watchers are just saying, ‘Look, we don’t know. No one knows.”
Klingner advocates reaffirming unequivocal commitment to defending South Korea and Japan by maintaining “a robust, forward-deployed military presence” and promising an “extended deterrence comprised of conventional forces, missile defense, and the nuclear umbrella.”
“We’re trying to nickel and dime our allies at a time when this is a reminder of the North Korean threat that faces all of us — as well as the China threat that faces all of us,” said Klingner. Now more than ever, he says, Trump should see the value of the U.S. troop presence in Asia.
UFOS ARE ‘UNEXPLAINED,’ NOT NECESSARILY ‘UNEARTHLY’: If you’re a UFO enthusiast, you’ve already seen the videos released by the Pentagon yesterday. They were widely circulated three years ago and have yet to be explained, though there remains no evidence that the UFOs are extraterrestrial spacecraft.
My colleague Jerry Dunleavy does a nice job of describing what the cockpit videos show and don’t show, something the military describes as “unidentified aerial phenomena” instead of “unidentified flying objects” since it’s not always clear the blobs of light are actually objects.
“The videos, released through the Freedom of Information Act, depict flying objects moving at incredible speeds and performing seemingly impossible aerial maneuvers,” he writes in the Washington Examiner. “One of the videos was shot in November 2004; the other two were shot in January 2015. They have been circulating the internet since unauthorized leaks in 2007 and 2017. In the 2015 videos, Navy pilots filming the aerial phenomena can be heard expressing their disbelief.”
“After a thorough review, the department has determined that the authorized release of these unclassified videos does not reveal any sensitive capabilities or systems and does not impinge on any subsequent investigations of military air space incursions by unidentified aerial phenomena,” said Pentagon spokesperson Sue Gough in a statement. “DOD is releasing the videos in order to clear up any misconceptions by the public on whether or not the footage that has been circulating was real or whether or not there is more to the videos.”
The Rundown
Washington Examiner: Kim’s fate and danger of nuclear-armed North Korea fail to sway Trump administration
Washington Examiner: ‘The American people deserve to be informed’: Harry Reid says UFO footage ‘only scratches the surface’
Washington Examiner: ‘I can’t talk about it now’: Trump implies he has insight into Kim Jong Un’s health
Wall Street Journal: North Korea’s Kim Stays Out of Sight for Another Day
AP: A look at past disappearances of NKorean leaders, officials
AP: A look at what’s ahead for virus-stricken USS Theodore Roosevelt
Yonhap News Agency: Abrams: USFK To Monitor South Korea’s Easing Of Social Distancing Before Deciding Whether To Follow Suit
Reuters: Trump Says China Could Have Stopped Coronavirus From Spreading, U.S. Investigating
Reuters: Russia Overtakes China With Coronavirus Cases At 87,000
USNI News: Hospital Ship Comfort Ends NYC COVID-19 Mission After Treating 182 Patients
Breaking Defense: DoD Budget Cuts Likely As $4 Trillion Deficit Looms
Defense News: Storm Clouds Await Pentagon’s Request For Defense Industry Cash Injection
Military Times: Studies tackle who joins the military and why, but their findings aren’t what many assume
Stars and Stripes: Decline In Civilian Casualties Reversed By Taliban Violence After Peace Deal Signing, UN Says
Washington Post: U.N., Arab powers fear wider war in Yemen after separatists declare self-rule in the south
Marine Corps Times: Marines Descend Down Ship Cargo Net In Tactic Reminiscent Of World War II
Air Force Magazine: AFRICOM Review Confirms Civilians Killed in 2019 Somalia Airstrike
Task & Purpose: More than 60 lawmakers want to award James Mattis the Congressional Gold Medal
The Hill: PETA presses Pentagon to stop troops from drinking cobra blood, killing animals in survival training
Calendar
NOTE: Most events in Washington have moved online in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the Pentagon has been conducting almost-daily pop-up briefings, which are often only announced at the last minute. Check https://www.defense.gov for updates to the Pentagon’s schedule.
TUESDAY | APRIL 28
6 p.m. — Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies “Aerospace Nation” conversation with Matt Donovan, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness. https://www.mitchellaerospacepower.org/aerospace-nation
10 a.m. — German Marshall Fund of the United States webinar: “What Lies Ahead for the Transatlantic Relationship After the Coronavirus?” with retired Army Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, strategic studies chair at the Center for European Policy Analysis; and Roland Paris, international affairs professor at the University of Ottawa Graduate School of Public and International Affairs and former senior adviser for global affairs and defense to the Canadian prime minister. http://www.gmfus.org/events/ytn-webinar
10 a.m. — Center for Strategic and International Studies webcast: “Russia’s ‘Private” Military Companies: The Example of the Wagner Group,” with Kimberly Marten, professor and chair of Barnard College’s Department of Political Science; Jeffrey Edmonds, research scientist at CNA; and Jeffrey Mankoff, deputy director of the CSIS Russia and Eurasia Program. https://www.csis.org/events
10 a.m. — Henry L. Stimson Center webcast: “Trends in Global Arms Transfers and Military Spending,” with Nan Tian, researcher in the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s Arms and Military Expenditure Program; Valerie Insinna, air warfare reporter at Defense News; Siemon Wezeman, senior researcher in the SIPRI Arms and Military Expenditure Program; Mindy Smithberger, director of the Project on Government Oversight’s Military Reform Project; and Rachel Stohl, vice president of Stimson. https://www.stimson.org/event
11 a.m. — Heritage Foundation webinar: “COVID-19 Cover-Ups: Coronavirus Reporting in Iran, North Korea and Russia,” with Maria Snegovaya, adjunct fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis; Bruce Klingner, senior research fellow for Northeast Asia at Heritage; James Phillips, senior research fellow at Heritage; and Luke Coffey, director of the Heritage Center for Foreign Policy. https://www.heritage.org/middle-east/event
11 a.m. — United States Institute of Peace webinar: “China’s Impact on Conflict Dynamics in the Red Sea Arena,” with former acting Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Susan Thornton, senior fellow in the Yale Law School’s China Center; Deborah Brautigam, director of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies’ China Africa Research Initiative; Maria Repnikova, assistant professor at Georgia State University; David Shinn, adjunct professor at George Washington University; Joel Wuthnow, research fellow at the National Defense University Center for the Study of Chinese Military Affairs; Payton Knopf, adviser to the USIP Africa Program; Patricia Kim, senior policy analyst in the USIP China Program; Johnnie Carson, senior adviser at USIP; and Jennifer Staats, director of east and southeast Asia programs at USIP. https://www.usip.org/events
12:30 p.m. — Brookings Institution book discussion via webinar on “Becoming Kim Jong Un — A Former CIA Officer’s Insights into North Korea’s Enigmatic Young Dictator,” with author Jung Pak, senior fellow in the Brookings Center for East Asia Policy Studies; Sue Mi Terry, Korea chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies; and Ryan Hass, fellow in the Brookings Center for East Asia Policy Studies. https://www.brookings.edu/events/webinar
1 p.m. — Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies webcast: “Diplomacy in the Age of Coronavirus,” with United Arab Emirates Ambassador to the United States Lana Nusseibeh and Eliot Cohen, SAIS dean. https://sais.jhu.edu/campus-events
1 p.m. — Government Executive Media Group webcast “Digital Defense: How Identity Management Supports Secure, Agile Mission Delivery,” with Jason Howe, Air Force CTO and chief cloud architect; Michael McDonnell, senior cloud architect at CDO Technologies; Andrew Whelchel, principal solutions engineer at Okta; and Sam Jackson, senior content producer at Government Executive. https://www.govexec.com/feature
6 p.m. — The Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies “Aerospace Nation” conversation with Matt Donovan, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness from earlier in the day will be posted online. https://www.mitchellaerospacepower.org/aerospace-nation
WEDNESDAY | APRIL 29
8 a.m. — Northrop Grumman Corporation webcasts its first quarter 2020 financial results conference call, with Kathy Warden, chairman, chief executive officer, and president; and Dave Keffer, chief financial officer. http://investor.northropgrumman.com
9 a.m. — General Dynamics webcasts its first quarter 2020 financial results conference call on www.gd.com.
10:30 a.m. — The Boeing Company releases its financial results for the first quarter of 2020 during a conference call, with David Calhoun, president and chief executive officer; and Greg Smith, chief financial officer and executive vice president of enterprise performance and strategy. Webcast at https://services.choruscall.com.
10 a.m. — George Washington University Project for Media and National Security Defense Writers Group conference call with Rep. Adam Smith, a Washington Democrat and chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. https://nationalsecuritymedia.gwu.edu
10 a.m. — Atlantic Council webcast: “What’s Next for U.S.-Iraq Relations?” with Kirsten Fontenrose, director of the Atlantic Council’s Middle East Security Initiative; Abbas Kadhim, director of the Atlantic Council’s Iraq Initiative; C. Anthony Pfaff, nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council; William Wechsler, director of the Atlantic Council’s Hariri Center; and Louisa Loveluck, Baghdad bureau chief for the Washington Post. https://atlanticcouncil.org/event
10:30 a.m. — Arms Control Association webinar: “The Future of New START and U.S. National Security,” with former Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Rose Gottemoeller; former Joint Chiefs Chairman Navy Adm. Michael Mullen; former Undersecretary of Energy for Nuclear Security Frank Klotz; and former Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Thomas Countryman. https://zoom.us/webinar/register
12 p.m. — Hudson Institute webcast: “Is Britain Still A Global Power?” with UK Ambassador to the United States Karen Pierce and Ben Judah, visiting fellow at the Hudson Institute. https://www.hudson.org/events
2 p.m. — Government Executive Media Group webcast: “Unpacking Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification,” with Katie Arrington, chief information security officer in the Defense Department’s Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition. https://www.govexec.com/feature
3 p.m. — The Defense Department’s Office of Small Business Programs and Defense Acquisition University host a webinar on the threat of adversarial foreign investment, with Andrew Pahutski, highly qualified expert to the Pentagon’s Undersecretary of Acquisition and Sustainment. https://www.dau.edu/events
THURSDAY | APRIL 30
10 a.m. — Brookings Institution webinar: “What Role will the Army Play in Great Power Competition After COVID-19?” withArmy Secretary Ryan McCarthy; Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville; and Michael O’Hanlon, senior fellow at Brookings. https://www.brookings.edu/events/webinar
11 a.m. — Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance online discussion: “The Missile Defense Review: One Year Reflection and Outlook to the Future,” with John Rood, former undersecretary of defense for policy; and Riki Ellison, founder and chairman, Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance. https://www.youtube.com/watch
11 a.m. — Washington International Trade Association webinar: “COVID-19 and Trade: The Defense Production Act and Buy American Provisions.” https://zoom.us/webinar/register
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“On Kim Jong Un? I can’t tell you exactly. Yes, I do have a very good idea, but I can’t talk about it now.”
President Trump, on the health of Kim Jong Un, following unconfirmed reports the North Korean leader may be gravely ill or dead.
